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Holding simultaneous inquiry, either during investigation or post submission of final report under Section 173(2) CrPC is incomprehensible under the Code of Criminal Procedure – High Court of Punjab and Haryana.

According to section 173(2) of CrPC as soon as the investigation is completed the officer shall forward to the Magistrate to take cognizance of the offence on a police report. But in certain case is can be seen that few authorities knowingly or unknowing misuse their power and by filing a supplementary report under section 173(8) which creates chaos in serving justice when it intervenes with the trial. The landmark judgement passed by the single bench of HON’BLE JUSTICE MANOJ BAJAJ in PANKAJ KUMAR V STATE OF PUNJAB (CRM-M-16013-2020) dealt with the issue mentioned above.

In this case the petitioner was accused of case under section 302,307, 148 of IPC 1860 and applied for regular bail under section 439 of CrPC while the case was pending for trail an application was made initiating the inquiry for his innocence by his mother and later he was declared innocent through a report submitted under section 173(8) of CrPC stating the petitioner has no role in occurrence of the crime, based on such report the petitioner has applied for regular bail.

The counsel for state mentioned that the petitioner is an accused of grave offences and was present at the crime spot and caused death of person which was witnessed by two other victims and further stated that the petitioner was main accused of the case mentioned in the FIR and granting him regular bail on the basis of the report of innocence under section 173(8) will intervene in delivering justice to the deceased and other victims.

The learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the petitioner is innocent and was framed in the FIR which was later proved by the police report under Section 173(8) of CrPC and is in police custody since long therefore he  is entitled to regular bail as it is affecting his societal prestige and life,

The hon’ble court referred to a Supreme Court judgement of (Vinay Tyagi Vs. Irshad Ali, (2013 (5) SCC 762)) which stated that “Section 173(8) deals with further investigation in which the police officer is expected to file any oral or documentary evidences with the objective to help court proceeding and speed up the trial which shall not be misused to divert the judiciary in delivering justice.”

The Hon’ble court analysed the facts of the present case and the arguments of both the parties and opined that “in several instances it can be seen that several culprits have been hiding themselves in the curtain of favorable inquiry reports which is making it difficult for the judiciary to trace them Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure confers upon the High Court inherent powers to make such orders as may be necessary to give effect to any order under the Code, therefore the court is of the opinion that where after registration of FIR, investigation has commenced, no parallel inquiry shall be initiated only to prove the innocence it shall be deemed as an offence. The petition is hereby dismissed.”

Click here to read the judgement

Judgement Reviewed by Pratikshya Pattnaik